Wounded Somali being given aid by Major Len Olivero's boys

The rounds thudded through the sides of the Toyota pickup (left hand drive) and slammed through Staff Sergeant Azman’s body like a hot knife through butter. He died instantly. Corporal Ghani instantly opened fire in the direction; the .50 calibre machine gun had fired, with his M16, after exhausting the entire rounds in his magazine he took out his M79.

He tried to live up to the proud traditions of the Rangers. There were too many of them and they closed up all around the pickup very fast. The armed militia men started firing from the crowd of old men women and children. Ghani tried, desperately to fight then off, unfortunately the rest of the mixed patrol of different countries were not able to assist him. Ghani hesitated because of this screw-up, one of the Somalis yanked the rifle from his hands and another pumped some rounds into Corporal Ghani’s head. He fell down dead.

The Italian Colonel, the two Italian Captains, the New Zealand Army Warrant Officer, the rest of the Malaysians and the sole Malaysian Intelligence Officer were taken prisoner. The bodies of the two Malaysians were seized. Colonel Fulvio Vezzalini, the two Italian Captains were captured along with the New Zealand Warrant Officer. The Italian Colonel informed him that his patrol was ambushed and that two Malaysian were dead, two seriously injured (stretcher cases).

Along with the Italian Colonel was the Malaysian Intelligence Warrant Officer. Major Len who just awoke was in a state of confusion, his mind was reeling with the words of the Italian Colonel, “we have got to save them”. Major Len then went to meet the Somali Elders who had accompanied the Italian Colonel. The Elders told him that he could take a few soldiers to bring back the dead, the wounded and the prisoners. That they would not be allowed to bear arms, they had to recover their men unarmed. He considered that they were Rangers and that they did not need fire arms to prove to people how good and fearless soldiers they were. So, after a rough calculation, 2 dead and 2 stretcher cases, he needed 8 for stretchers (good terrain so 2 per stretcher), another 3 to help the walking wounded and himself to command the group.

There were no Somalis, there was no information and no feedbacks as the Somalis around K4 had shut down their ramshackle stalls and fled the scene as they were terrified that the Malaysians would indiscriminately retaliate against them. They walked unarmed towards Bakara Market and as they passed each alley that came to a main road, there was a Technical (a vehicle mounted with a .50 gun), indicating that the Somalis were scared shit of the Malaysians, as they were expecting severe retaliation.